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Meet Leapfrog Group's 13 "Highest Value" Hospitals

By David Hamilton

Updated on: December 12, 2008 / 7:17 PM EST / MoneyWatch

The healthcare-quality gurus at the Leapfrog Group have put out a new survey naming 13 hospitals they believe offer both high-quality care and cost-effective treatment.

The group, which surveyed more than 1,220 hospitals (out of roughly 5,000 in the U.S.), ranked medical centers on the efficiency with which they performed four procedures: Heart bypass surgery, angioplasty, heart-attack treatment and pneumonia care. Leapfrog defined "efficiency" as a combination of "quality," measured in terms of how patients fared and adherence to treatment guidelines, and "resource utilization," derived from how long patients remained in the hospital and how frequently they were readmitted. The 13 winners all had top efficiency scores in at least three of the four procedures.

Leapfrog lists the 13 qualifying hospitals alphabetically by state, so don't look for invidious comparisons among the winners. (Here is Leapfrog's original press release on the study as a PDF file.) As a bonus for BNET readers, I've included each hospital's chain affiliation, which Leapfrog didn't identify:

Desert Regional Medical Center (Tenet Healthcare): Palm Springs, California
Mercy Medical Center Redding (Catholic Healthcare West): Redding, California
St. Mary's Hospital And Medical Center (Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health System): Grand Junction, Colorado
St. John's Hospital (Hospital Sisters Health System): Springfield, Illinois
St. Luke's Hospital (Iowa Health System): Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Fairview Southdale Hospital (Fairview Health Services): Edina, Minnesota
Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital (Park Nicollet Health Services): Saint Louis Park, Minnesota
Regions Hospital (HealthPartners): Saint Paul, Minnesota
North Mississippi Medical Center (NMMC): Tupelo, Mississippi
St. Luke's Hospital (independent): Maumee, Ohio
Providence St Vincent Medical Center (Providence Health & Services): Portland, Oregon
Mercy General Health Partners, Sherman Campus (Trinity Health): Muskegon, Michigan
St. Clare's Hospital Of Weston Inc (Ministry Health Care), Weston, Wisconsin

FierceHealthcare noted that the only states with multiple hospitals on the list were California, with two, and Minnesota, with three. More interesting to me, however, is to look at which hospital chains fared best. Only one for-profit hospital, owned by Tenet Healthcare, managed to crack the top tier; by contrast, five Catholic chain hospitals made the list. Only one lonely independent hospital -- St. Luke's of Maumee, Ohio -- made the grade.

For your further education, here's a quick rundown on the chains that owned 12 of the 13 highest-value hospitals:

Tenet Healthcare, a publicly traded company, is the country's second-largest hospital chain with 56 hospitals in 12 states.
Catholic Healthcare West, a Catholic nonprofit, operates 41 hospitals in Arizona, California and Nevada.
Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health System, a Catholic nonprofit, runs 13 hospitals and clinics in four states (PDF link).
Hospital Sisters Health System, a Catholic nonprofit, owns 13 hospitals in Illinois and Wisconsin.
Iowa Health System, a nonprofit, operates 11 hospitals in Iowa and claims to be the seventh-largest non-Catholic hospital system in the U.S.
Fairview Health Services, a nonprofit, owns 10 hospitals in Minnesota.
Park Nicollet Health Services, a nonprofit, runs one hospital and 25 clinics in and around Minneapolis.
HealthPartners, a nonprofit, offers both health insurance and healthcare services at one hospital and almost three dozen clinics in Minnesota.
NMMC, a nonprofit, operates six hospitals in Northern Mississippi.
Providence Health & Services, a nonprofit, runs seven hospitals in Oregon.
Trinity Health, a Catholic nonprofit, owns more than 32 hospitals in Midwest and Western states.
Ministry Health Care, a Catholic nonprofit, operates 15 Wisconsin hospitals.